It doesn't take a medium to predict that the Matsing Tribe is going to be tanking early. This is mostly due to the fact that their un-leader, leader who doesn't want to lead but does anyway, Russell Swan can't assess his tribe's abilities and their inability to tell him to go take a long hike on the beach. Now, he's probably a perfectly nice guy, one who made a huge mistake, admitting to it in Tribal Council, but something tells me he won't be able to help himself.
He's lucky. Zane Knight, who went out in a huge ball of fail by underplaying, underlasting, and undersmarting everyone, saved Russ' Survivor life this week. I don't know how many times I need to say this but I will again. Future reality contestants: if you want to play the BIG game, trying to make BIG moves while congratulating yourself about your own GENIUS, you better back it up with two things: a killer ability to save yourself in challenges, and zipped lips. These were the exact two qualities that Zane did not have, therefore earning him the distinction of being the first voted off.
Russ will probably continue for at least another week of life in the game because of two other tribe mates: Roxanne "Roxy" Morris and Angie Layton who risked losing their eyeballs with all the rolling they did at Tribal Council. They tried to pin their predicament on Russ, but he does not carry the sole blame. Instead of standing up to Russ before the immunity challenge, asserting themselves and their abilities, they "stood down" to his non-authority, authority, obeying his directives. His bright idea? Get the one guy on the tribe whose physicality ensured failure to do the running with him.
This tribe seems to have only two possibilities of making it to the merge: Denise Stapley and Malcolm Freberg. They were smart enough to seek each other out as the only two with the brains and strategy in the tribe. This, with their ability to make it through the physical challenges, will give them the best chances of getting out of this cluster of a tribe intact.
With this tribe's state of disarray and dismal un-leadership, Matsing stands a great chance of losing yet another immunity challenge next week and one of Roxy or Angie being sent packing. Russ will probably find the immunity idol because he stumbled on the clue, unlike Penner who found it with purpose. Even with this coveted idol, I doubt Russ's chances of making it to the merge are good. He'll probably not use it or give it away by accident.
These are just my assessments from watching the show. If you want real insider info, then get it from the one, true source of spoilers: Missyae.
Stay tuned for the upcoming blogs:
- My assessment of the singing competitions: The Voice, X-Factor and the newly rehashed American Idol. Why is this show still on?
- Misogyny and Reality TV
- Skill, Luck, Production and the Mighty Buck
